Canaan, The Land of Feuds

Past, Present and Future of Cradle of Civilizations (3)

We previously established that the land of Shem was penetrated by Canaan, his off-springs and off-roots. They settled on the coast of Anatolia (South Turkey), Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.

Station Eight

We also know that from Aprachid (son of Shem), came Eber who is the main seed of Hebrews.

From Eber came Joktan who is the main seed of Arabs.

The other son of Eber whose name is Peleg (brother of Joktan), settled in Babel, and the Book of Genesis marked that in his days "the Earth was divided", which was politically translated to the start of a “feud” between the two brothers (Peleg and Joktan). As a result Peleg fled Babel to settle in the Arabian Peninsula.

His descendants were Adnan and Maad, from whom Mohammad descended.

Prophet Mohammad goes to his roots and stops at Adnan, saying he does not wish to go further back?

From Peleg descendants was Abraham, who later will be a dominant figure to the three main religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Abraham had a son from Lady Sara called Isaac and a son from Lady Hagar called Ismail.

Ismail was raised by the Arabs

Isaac was raised by Hebrews and from him came Jacob, the father of the Israelites.

The sons of Shem raised the following nations:

Elam: a kingdom which was established in the lands of Arabia (South Iran and south Iraq).

Assyria:  The Akkadian kingdom in upper Tigris (Iraq) and later was split into two kingdoms; Assyria in the North and Babel in the south.

Lydia: A kingdom which governed Anatolia Turkey (Manisa and Izmir) and later the great Hettite Empire rose from its foundations.

Decedents of Aram inherited northern Mesopotamia and Syria, including the lands between Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Asshur mountains, land of Ema, Assur, Babel, Persia, Assyria, Babylonia and Media.

Muslims believe that Prophet Hud who lived in Madian of Ancient Arabia is also descendant of Aram.

From all those historic nations, great and important civilizations were founded to play significant roles that divided the lands to ethnic sects and later to religious groups; Sumerian, Akkadian, Ur, Babylonian, Kassite, Hurrians, Hittites, Median, Persian, Egyptians, Hyksos, Ethiopian, Libyans and others.

The lands of Mesopotamia were divided between Shem, Ham and Canaan.

Jews claim that Canaan does not exist as a nation today.

Station Nine

Abraham married Lady Sarah and left Babylon towards Canaan land, and settled in a place called Shechem (Biblical name) which is now known as Nablus in Palestine.

The Bible defined the Land of Canaan as “the Promised Land”, and named it “Land of Israel”.

Later, following the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua assembled the Israelites in Shechem and encouraged them to reaffirm their adherence to the Torah.

According to Book of Genesis, God promised this Land to Abraham’s descendants.

This is may be why all three religions claim the Land.

Abraham's nephew Lot traveled with him and settled in kingdom of Sodom.

Lady Sarah was barren and offered her Egyptian maid Hagar to bring him a son.

Hagar got pregnant with Ismail.

Sarah was upset and asked Abraham to abandon Hagar and her son in the desert.

Later Sarah was pregnant with Isaac.

Arab tribes raised Ismail as one of them and shared with Hagar the water she discovered in the desert.

Abraham and Ismail built Kaaba, which later was considered by Muslims, as the first foundation of House of God.

Muslims believe Abraham is the first Muslim, and Ismail is the “Sacrificed Son”.

Jews and Christians consider Abraham is their father, and Isaac is the “Sacrificed Son”.

A new “Feud”!

Isaac had twin boys; Esau and Jacob.

Station Ten

Jacob and his mother deceived his father Isaac and had him transfer the prophecy to Jacob.

Jacob, afraid of his brother ran from his father’s house, and at a certain place or spot, the Book of Genesis considered him renamed as Israel and became the father of the Israelites.

Later this place would be known as Jerusalem.

Because Hagar was the maid of Sarah, some Jews and Christians claim they are superiors to Muslims! Jacob had some children from maids as well.

Jacob fled Back to Haran, his grandfather Abraham birth place.

He worked for his uncle (brother of his mother), and married his two daughters, and a 2 maid of each one of his wives.

Jacob deceived his uncle with his flocks and herds. He stole some expensive households and fled back to Shechem in the Land of Canaan.

He dwelt in Hebron (Al Khalil) with twelve sons and one daughter from his four wives.

But he loved most his first born from his wife Rachel; Joseph.

Joseph’s brothers were jealous because of their father’s love to Joseph and conspired to kill him. They throw him in a deserted well.

Some Egyptians traders found him, took him to Egypt and sold him to a rich man.

Joseph proved to be a scientific person and economist.

He was appointed as Treasurer of Egypt.

Later his parents and brothers reunited with him in Egypt, and Hebrews spread again in Egypt.

Jacob’s daughter Dinah was said to be raped and killed by the ruler of Schechem. Her two brothers Simeon and Levi avenged her by destroying the city.

Moses was a direct descendant of Levi.

Station Eleven

Ismail is the first son of Abraham from his wife Hagar, who was his first wife’s (Sarah) maid. To avoid Sarah anger, and obey God’s will, Abraham abandoned Ismail and his mother in the desert.

Some Arabs found them; they raised Ismail and shared the waters that Hagar discovered in the desert.

Like Isaac, history and religious books did not give much elaboration on Ismail life.

However, it is worth to mention that Ismail and his mother Hagar are associated with the Covenant of Sinai, which forms the first five books of the Hebrew Bible “the Torah”. While Sarah is associated with the covenant of Grace, into which her son Isaac enters. The covenant of grace became the basis for all future covenants that God made with mankind such as with Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ.

Station Twelve

By the time when Moses was born, the Hittite Empire was extended to most of Anatolia and parts of Syria and Canaan, so that by 1300 BC the Hittites were bordering on the Egyptian sphere of influence, leading to the inconclusive Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC.

The Kassites took Babel as their capital city, and had a long dynasty.

Although the Mesopotamian region maintained its independence through this period, it was not a power in the Near East, and mostly sat out the large wars fought over the Levant between Egypt, the Hittite Empire, and Mitanni, as well as independent peoples in the region.

Assyria participated in these wars toward the end of the period, but the Kassites in Babylon did not. They did, however, fight against their longstanding rival to the east, Elam.

In the end, the Elamites conquered Babylon, bringing this period to an end.

Following the Biblical times, Exodus from Egypt happened in a time between 1400 and 1300 BC.

During that period Assyria became the most powerful kingdom on Earth.

Egypt lost its grip over the Levant.

Sinai was the first stop of Moses, and the Israelites refused to enter the Promised Land, (Land of Canaan) because they were afraid of the Giants “The Amorites”.

After Moses spies returned from Canaan, the Israelites disobeyed Moses and attempted to invade the land, they were crushed by the Amalekites and Canaanites.

The second attempt made by Moses where he defeated the Amorites

Moses could not enter the Promised Land and died at the eastern shores of Jordan River.

Between 1206 and 1150 BC, the cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and Syria, and the Egyptian Empire in Syria and Canaan interrupted trade routes and extinguished literacy.

In the first phase of this period, almost every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter: examples include Hattusa (Hittites city capital), Mycenae (Greece), Ugarit (Syria).

After Moses death, Joshua invaded Canaan and destroyed Jericho and from there he was able to lead the Israelites to several victories, securing much of the Land of Canaan.

The Israelites settled there till the time when King David came and the Kingdom of Israel was established.

Sami Cherkaoui

Rebel Of Canaan

Past, Present and Future of the Cradle of Civilization (2)



After a brief look on the past of Mesopotamia in the last blog, the question was if there is any similarity between the past and present days in the region?


I also concluded that today we see further attempts to divide the region again into demographic lands. to reshuffle history at present, and prepare it for a certain future.

How is this going on?

Before answering the question, it may help to dig again in the past and stop at certain stations, which I believe helped in creating the present we are having now, along with all its complications.

I will start from the Station One - Adam and Eve our first parents.
They mated, had two sons, one of them killed the other, And murder was the first crime.

Station Two is Akhnokh (Idris), who was a prophet but also a teacher (Hermes). He had all  knowledge and science which he taught to humans.
Koran tells that God raised Idris to a higher place. I believe this means a higher rank with regards to the enormous knowledge he acquired.
Interestingly he was born in Babylon but left to Egypt to start his teachings.
The Pharaohs were excellent students. They captured all sciences, then spread them worldwide.
Their first inventions were arms and weapons.

Station Three would be Noah.
He lived in ancient Mesopotamia, and was known as the person who built the ark to save humans and animals from a devastating flood. All religious and history books confirm that he at least had three sons Sam, Ham and Japheth.
In the book of Genesis Noah cursed Ham (because he saw him naked) through his son Canaan to be always a servant to his brothers.
Noah blessed Sam (Shem) and wished for Japheth to multiply in numbers, and be under the "protective umbrella" of Shem. Canaan always be their servants!
Talmud elaborated more and concluded that either Ham saw his father mating his wife or Ham himself had an intercourse with his father's wife.
In any case now there are already Lords and Slaves

Station Four
After the flood Japheth moved through Turkey and inhabited the lands of north Iran, Armenia and Russia, then continued to explore all the North of East and West Europe, then down to France, Spain, Italy and the Greek Islands.
The Bible ascribed seven sons of Japheth from whom the following nations raised:
Gomer: Armenians, Ceimmerians, Scythians, Welsh, Irish, Germans, Huns, Franks and Turks.
Magog: Slavs, Mongols, Hungarians, Irish, Finns, Pamiris. Pashtuns.
Madai: Medes, Indo-Iranians, Mitanni, Mannai, Persian, Tajiks, Balochis and Tati.
Javan: Greeks (Ionians)
Tubal: Tabal, Tibareni, Georgians, Italics, Iberians, Basques.
Tiras: Thracians, Goths, Jutes, Teutons.
Meshech: Phrygians, Illyrians, Caucasian Iberia, Russians.

Station Five
Ham moved to Africa and parts of the Near East (India)
Egypt was considered in the Bible as the Land of Ham.
Ham became the forefather of the southern peoples (Hamitic Race)
He had four sons from whom the following nations derived:
Cush: Egypt, Yemen, Eritrea, Arabian Peninsula, Ethiopia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Babel, Akkad.
Mizraim: Egypt, Libya, Philistim, Crete and Cyprus.
Phut: Land of Punt
Canaan: Phoenicia, Anatolia, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
The Book of Jubilees hinted that Canaan further refused to join his brothers to settle in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile (Africa) and proceeded to inhabit the eastern shores of Mediterranean "squatting" within the inheritance of Shem in the region that later is promised to Abraham.
Lords and Servants.
Offspring of Canaan were:
The Hittites: People of Hatti a powerful entity of Anatolia
The Jebusites: A tribe lived around Jerusalem
The Amorites: Lived between Jordan, Syria and part of Saudi Arabia.
The Girgasites: Egypt Delta
The Arkites: Lived in Akkar North of Lebanon
The Sinites: Lived in the desert of Sinai Egypt
The Arvadites: Lived in Island of Arwad Syria
The Zemarites: Lived in city of Dummar Syria
The Hamathites: Lived in the city of Hamah Syria

Station Six
Sam or Shem is known as the forefather of the Middle peoples (Semitic Race)
Jews consider him their father through Arpachshad.
His children were Elam, Asshur, Aram, Lud and Arpachshad from whom Abraham was descended.
Sam and his sons were the ancestors of the following nations:
Elam: Khuzistan, Iran
Assur: Iraq
Arpachshad: Iraq, Turkey, Syria (Sham), Lebanon and possibly south Jordan and north Saudi Arabia.
Lud: Anatolia
Aram: Iraq, Syria

It is considered by most scholars and historians that the five sons of Sam were the ancestors of the nations of Elam, Assyria, Syria, Chaldea and Lydia respectively.
Some historians believe that Sam descended the whole of European people.
The Islamic scholar Al Tabari believes that the Greeks are descendants of Sam.

Station Seven
Now Arpachshad who is considered the father of Jews, had 3 sons:
Cainan: whom for some reasons the Jews cancelled his name from the genealogical list

Shelah or Salah: Who may be also son of Cainan and not Arpachshad, had a son called Eber who is the eponymous ancestor of Hebrews. He was living in Babel, however it is said by the Jewish traditions that he refused to participate in building the Tower of Babel. He had two sons, Peleg and Joktan.
Peleg: Whom in his days and according to the Book of Genesis "The Earth was divided" and this expression was translated as political divisions between the sons of Noah.
Start of the feuds.
From Peleg there were Reu, Serug, Nabor, Terah and Abraham.

Station Eight
Joktan: In Arabic he is called Qahtanenthrographers identified Joktan's sons with people around the Indus river?
Later the sons of Joktan raised Ismail son of  Abraham.

I will stop at this station and try to see how we can inter-relate so far, these genetic lines with Geo-politics.

Since Canaan rebelled and refused to join his father, he might also have rebelled to fight that curse of Noah and the idea of being a servant to Shem.
His offspings formed major powers, and repeatedly tried to control the regions of Egypt, Syria and Phoenicia.
The Hittites having their strong base in Anatolia and Northern Syria were in continuous wars with Egypt and tried several times to invade the lands.Later all those hostilities ended with the famous battle of Kaddish, which was resulted with both; Hittites and Egyptians declaring amazing victory.(ring a bell?).
However both were extremely exhausted and many important political changes happened in the aftermath of the battle.

The Jebusites were also offspring of Canaan, settled in Philistine and built the city of Jerusalem which they named it Jebus till it was later conquered by King David.

The Amorites who were described in the Bible as the Giants, probably are the same people of Eram in the Koran. They were the inhabitants of Parts of Arabia, Jordan and North Syria. The Bibles tell that they were conquered by Joshua, as the Israelites were ordered to destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan, however the Gibenonites (offshoots of Amorite) tricked them to a treaty that kept their lives but only as slaves.

The Elamites were descendants of Elam son of Shem and inhabited the lands southwest of Iran and Iraq. It was later conquered by the Sumerian king Enmebargesi, and the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who put the Hammurabi Code, a law that was written before the Mosaic Code, a matter which was subject to disputes between civilizations for many centuries to come, probably till our days.

Station Nine would be Abraham who was the father of Isac from the Hebrew Lady Sarah and Ismail from the Egyptian Lady Hajar.

Station Ten would be Jacob (called Israel) who was the son of Isac, and the father of Israeli people.

Station Eleven would be Ismail who was the Ancestor of Mohamed.

Station Twelve would be Moses and his wars against the Pharaohs of Egypt.

Station Thirteen would be Virgin Mary, the birth and death of Jesus

Station Fourteen would be Mohamed and the rise of Islam

Station Fifteen would be the Islamic Invasions

Station Sixteen would be the Abbasid Era

Station Seventeen would be the Omayyad Era

Station Eighteen would be the Ottoman Empire

Station Nineteen would be the WWI

Station Twenty would be the Soviet Era

Station Twenty One would be WWII

Station Twenty One would be WWIII

To be continued

Sami Cherkaoui

Past, Present and Future of the Cradle of Civilization (1)

 The Cradle of Civilization is in the region of Mesopotamia that is the area between the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and includes Iraq, Northern Jordan, parts of eastern Syria, (Lebanon), Kuwait, southeastern Turkey and western Iran.
These countries are well known as the countries between the two rivers.

They are also the countries in which the first societies known had emerged and developed, and from where the basic three religions were sourced.
Later it developed to include the Near and Middle East lands, which included the Nile Valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley in India and the Yellow River Valley in China.

Great Dynasties established, ruled and either vanished or developed into further civilizations; Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid, Uruk, Akkadia, Ur, Assyria, Babylonia, Hittite, Achamenida, Parsia and many others.

The earliest language was the Sumerian, then the Semetic then the Akkadian then the Aramaic.

Mesopotamians were first to develop industrial tools and materials to improve their social lives, facilitate their trading methods and strengthen their military force.

They invented metal tools, glass making tools, textile making machines, weaving tools.
They built dams, water storage tanks and irrigation systems.
They used copper, bronze iron and gold to make their military armors.
They invented the sexagesimal numeral system, which is the source of 60 minutes/hour and 24 hours/day, 7days/week, 30 days/months, 12 months/year calendar, created the 360 degree circle and mastered in map making.

Mesopotamian people worshiped many Gods through their history, and told legendary tales about those Gods in a mythical way, the echoes of which are still banging till now.

Because of the different religions and powers, Mesopotamia became a battle field where different civilizations and their relevant empires clash, to conquer.

Under the Persian Achemenid Empire, Cyrus the Great became the pre-eminent power of the world. However lately conquered and fell to Alexander the Great of Macedonia. He invaded Persia and managed to overthrew King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire.

He then proceeded to take Syria and most of the Levant coast. He captured Tyre after a long siege. Then he moved to Egypt and many towns were quickly capitulated on his route except Gaza which fell after a long siege similar to the one of Tyre.

In Egypt he considered himself a liberator and was pronounced as the "Master of the Universe", and founded the city of Alexandria which was named after him.

He then marched back into Northern Iraq and defeated Darius once more at the Battle of Gaugamela and captured Babylon. Darius fled to Media then Parthia and Alexander set off in pursuit and just got Darius after his kinsman Bessus stabbed him.

A strange incident then happened there.
Alexander claimed that while Darius was dying he named Alexander as his successor to the Achaemenid Throne, and he considered himself the legitimate successor to Darius.
He declared war against Bessus to avenge Darius death, and followed him to Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

Alexander the Great had a complete change in attitude and was rapidly transforming into an "Asian Manner" person. He changed a lot of his habits and traditions to new ones from the Asian roots.
He married a Persian woman. He appointed Persian rulers.
The Persians and Indians started to see him as a new prophet rather than an invader.
He was proclaimed as King of Asia. But he preferred to take the Persian title "King of Kings".

This made his military generals conspire against him. They refused to follow his orders and invade further the Indian sub-continent. Then he died mysteriously in Babylon.

After his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart that resulted in the formation of a number of states ruled bu his surviving generals and formed the Arsacid Dynasty. However the wars with Rome and the Nomads, and the fighting among the Parthian nobility had weakened the Arsacids and the empire broke and vanquished by the Persian Sassanids, and Parthia folded into a newly formed province Khorasan.

In the 7th Century AD, the Sassanid Empire was conquered by the Muslim Armies under the famous Arab military leader Khalid Ibn Al Waleed. Consequently Mesopotamia was reunited under the Arabs, but governed by two provinces: Northern Mosul and Southern Baghdad. Later under the Abbasid Dynasty, Baghdad became the capital of the Arab Empire until the sack of Baghdad 1258 by the Mongolian leader Hulagu Khan who left Baghdad with 1 million person dead, and the city was totally burnt including the House of Wisdom and all its libraries. He used the invaluable books to make a passage across the Tigris River.
This year marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age.

Later the Ottoman Turks took over Baghdad and Mesopotamia was ruled as three separate territories: Mosul, Baghdad and Basra which is a territory included Kuwait.

At the end of WWI, Mesopotamia was occupied by the British Army who under the authority of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia, set up the government of Syria and Iraq under one Hashemite ruler.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, in 1920, the nation-state of Iraq was formed with its present days borders. Kuwait was a British protectorate, granted its independence from Britain in 1961.

In  early 1990s, Saddam Husein the ex-president of Iraq invaded Kuwait to claim it back to its Basra territory, which triggered the West to launch a war with coalition forces against Iraq to liberate Kuwait.

Do you recognize any similarity between the past and present days?

Today we see further attempts to divide the region again into demographic lands. to reshuffle history at present, and prepare it for a certain future.

What is this plan?

I will try to answer this question in the coming blogs.

Sami Cherkaoui

samicherkaouiarabicblog.blogspot.com